|Rabble Talks- Rob Mills and Laura Wellington|

Rabble studio is a design studio based within Cardiff bay, they also create networking events around Cardiff to allow for people within the design industry and students studying design to collaborate together and create a community.

Rabble talks held there talks this week within a small coffee shop called kin and ilk, the coffee shop is quite quaint and quirky and had excellent customer service. the coffee shop was easy to find and was a great location for the talks on the day. i decided to go with 4 of my other colleagues to be able to experience our first session as a group. all of the guys from rabble were all very friendly and approachable, as well as other guests that were there for the evening.

We were given talks by Robert mills, a content strategist from gather content. i found his talk extremely informative and gave me clear idea of how i could manage my work within groups and by myself. Rob’s talk was interesting to me as a content strategist and experience planning is along a similar path and i found this the most useful talk of the evening.

Here is some of the information i gathered from Roberts talk:

How content is everyone’s business

– Methods for better collaboration

– Content strategist (defines and tells a story)

– Copy writer (writes the story) questionable/can be most people

– Designer (how the story will look)

– Developer (technology to publish)

– Marketer (distributes the story)

– Someone (measures the success) could be anyone

5 core stages:

– strategy and planning

– Production

– Publishing

– Measurement

– Refinement

Pains of Not giving attention to content:

– change the design to fit the content

– Cut and shut the content to fit the design

– Project left in limbo

– IA, wire frames, taxonomy

The core model:

– Knowing your audienece is the key/ know numbers and the content needed for these customers

Silos: a person that works purely on there own and normally specialises within a certain topic/ connect with silos.

Pair-writing:

– two people sit together to write

– Content specialists collaborate with stakeholders

– Speeds up production and publishing process

– Guarantees input from subject matter experts.

Proto-content:

– existing content

– Competition content

– Write your own content

– Draft content

– Commission sample content

Dissemination:

– decide who needs what info

– Choose best method to share with them

– Include only data/info that’s relevant to them

– Engage them as early as possible

– Follow up

Content style guides:

– authentic and consistent voice and tone

– All content output is communicated effectively

– Helps when lots of people producing content

– Dissemate the guidelines so they are actually used

– Head start ( style guide)

Production workflow:

– brief/page table

– Research

– Write

– Review

– Revise

– Upload to cms

– Review in HTML

– User test

– Review

– Publish

Establish clear workflow:

– what stages do you need?

– Who is responsible for each stage?

– Are the stages linear or fluid?

Connecting silos:

– connect and communicate to create the best work possible

Our other talk was with Laura Wellington the CEO of duke studios in Leeds. Laura explained how herself and her partner created a business and the struggles that they’ve gone through in order to succeed within the design industry. I felt that this talk was truly inspirational as it allowed for us to realise that nothing is impossible and that if we want something we should work for it and achieve.

Overall I felt that the entire evening was a great idea and worked really well, i felt that the evening was expressive and informative and it allowed for greater knowledge in the different roles in which are open to us as students post-degree.